THE UNIVERSITY OF LEIPZIG

The social-cognitive dimension can be used as a conduit for furthering our understanding of
biodiversity management in Kenya, particularly in Kakamega. Human cognition treats
behaviour, which emanates from societal and cultural blueprints as adaptive to individual
experiences and other cognitive processes. According to this perspective these are under
socialized, especially when talking about biodiversity perceptions and biodiversity
management.
In the foregoing analysis, the socio-cognitive dimension is presented to make an
understanding of institutions and institutional evolution in regard to particular communities.
This analysis is also rooted in the communities around kakamega forest like, the Bakusu,
Batsotso, Wanyore, the Kisa, Luo, the Marama, the Marachi, Wahayo, Isuha and Wadumbi
among others. In doing so, the cognitive-dimension enables us to understand how such
communities relate to the forest biodiversity. We also use this same dimension to evaluate
why human choice and rationalism are central in the biodiversity management of the area. We
learn that human behaviour is related to inter-subjectively shared beliefs and value-infused
norms and knowledge about the way things were done and the way things are supposed to be
done. 446 Such knowledge is part of the broad social structures and processes that do mould the
society in question. Human behavior is also related to the value-infused knowledge and
traditions of societal collectives and of individual interpretations. We also must mention that
individuals act upon their interpretations of social events around them as well as exposures
over time. 447
Therefore, basing our analysis on the human cognitive, it becomes important to consider how
and to what extent such interpretations are affected by social forces, and how these social
forces can affect biodiversity management in an ethnically dominated setting like Kakamega.
From a cognitive perspective, we learn that ideas about reality are constructed through
interactions that are processes of interpreting the meaning of different species related to
ecosystem richness. Human cognition needs to be included in the analysis of such processes.
However, this does not mean that the socio-cognitive perspective should be equated to
voluntaristic standpoints. 448
The above analysis reveals that human thought and behaviour is to a large extent socially
restricted in a given situation, say the relationship between man and biodiversity, or more
specifically the relationship between the Luhya and particular animal species like snakes, why
are the Luo attached to marine biodiversity? why the Wadumbi have spiritual relationship
with particular tree species. We also ask whether this relationship amounts to better
management of biodiversity or the reverse. On the other hand, this analysis may also disclose
that individuals are sometimes ambiguous about the way they act and the way they interpret
the situations around them.
446
Ayres , C. E. 1961. Toward a Reasonable Society: The Values of Industrial Civilization. Austin: University of
Texas Press.
447
Tomasello, M. 1999. The cultural origins of human cognition. Cambrige:Havard University Press.
448
Douglas,N. 1987. How Institutions Think. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
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